20 
ON LIFE AND ORGANIZATION. 
In contemplating the operations of Nature’s laws, we perceive 
extraordinary changes constantly going on in bodies around us, 
beneath us, within us ; and, what is more, changes manifestly 
adapted for future use, and wonderfully conspiring together for our 
good : yet we are entirely ignorant of the intimate nature of these 
changes — we are unable to unravel the mystery. 
But do these mysterious phenomena, derive no additional in- 
terest from the very circumstance of their being not understood 1 
Just such an interest as an unmechanical looker-on feels in the 
working of a steam engine. Is it necessary that the man, in order 
to be convinced that design, that intention, that contrivance, have 
been employed about the engine, shall be allowed to pull it to pieces, 
in order to study its construction 1 No ; for all the purposes of as- 
certaining the existence of counsel and design in the formation of 
the engine, he wants no such opportunity. What he sees is suffi- 
cient. The power of the engine, its beautiful construction, and, 
what is more, its perfect adaptation to the purpose for which it 
was made, all testify the hand of a contriver. 
In the earlier ages, heat was considered the principle of life ; in 
later times electricity has been discovered ; and to electricity the 
same functions have been ascribed. By heat, for example, many 
wonderful things may be accomplished ; but heat will not act of 
itself. The powers of Electricity are still more wonderful than those 
of heat; but electricity we know to be governed in its mode of action 
by certain laws, and that it gives no sign of intelligence. 
Some philosophers (of the French school in particular) have sup- 
posed that matter possessed a capacity of assuming active energy, 
and changing itself into various modes of organized existence. We 
see, it is true, that organization has an inseparable relation to life. 
We see organization only in living beings; yet it is the vital prin- 
ciple which is the great architect, that models all the organs of the 
body — that is the great source from which all action springs, 
and the essence of the perfect structure of parts. There are so 
many striking and important differences between the properties 
of animate and inanimate matter, that I am at a loss to conceive 
how the functions of life can be carried on without a something, 
an immaterial something , superadded to the common agencies of 
matter, over which, to a certain extent, it has a controul. 
Matter has no action of its own, but only the aptitude of being 
acted on by other agencies. It is entirely inert, and remains for 
ever in a state of quiescence, when not exposed to the active 
energies of other powers. It is true that this agency ‘is invisible 
to our senses ; yet it is in perfect accordance with the unity of the 
system — the one law given by the Creator. 
The first point which claims our attention, in order that we may 
